Houston, Round 2

After leaving Harlingen, we arrived back in Houston for more Christmas with my family. 

 Apparently, we were having such fun that I hardly took any pictures. 

Sweet cousins - these 5 love each other and love being together! 

More presents

We have a drum set...he is a happy boy! 

The ping pong gun was a big hit.

We took Chelsea to her first Aggie game as they played a bowl game in Houston.  She liked it - possibly because of the popcorn and cotton candy.  The next day, we went to a Texans game. We got our fill of football!

Our time in Houston is always a bit of a whirlwind.  It's a fun whirlwind, but a whirlwind nevertheless.  In addition to my family, we love spending time with old friends and with our kids' birth families -- who we also consider part of our family. That is always a joy to us, and while I don't post pics on the blog out of respect for their privacy, we treasure our time with them and we are thankful for the visits we have. Our kids are loved by so many people and are blessed to know not only their birth parents, but also birth grandparents, great grandparents, aunts/uncles, etc.  Such a blessing.

Speaking of adoption, we are always happy to answer questions about open adoption...leave a comment and we will do our best to answer any questions.

Now we are back in Hungary...more Budapest adventures to come!

Christmas in South Texas

We started our 3 week Texas trip in South Texas with Larry's family. We had a great time and our kids thoroughly enjoyed time with everyone.  Cade loved his uncles and renamed them "Bunkle Jeff" and "Uncle Candy (Kenny)." Jeff increased Cade's linguistic ability and taught him to say "No mas!" 

Bass Pro Shop Santa visit

Ice skating!  

Loved these penguins the kids could skate with to keep their balance 

Chelsea and Emma Grace 

Hunter and Cade 

Motorcycle man

Motorcycle girl got to go for a ride

The whole crew!

Really Really Big Christmas Show!

We were excited that our time in Houston corresponded to the Really Really Big Christmas Show at Second Baptist. It is indeed a really big show and we all loved it!

A Fun Day at the Vidampark

Trying to take advantage of the sunshine, we visited the Budapest Vidampark on Saturday. It is Budapest's only amusement park, and it is quite amusing in more ways than one. Inside the gates, it resembles a parking lot carnival.  The amusement park was built in the 1950's, and I think some of the rides have never been updated. In spite of some questionable safety issues, we all had a fun time.

There was a cute little kids area with little rides and a playground. 

Notice Chelsea's left hand over Cade's shoulder....the rides pretty much all lacked seat belts. This one bumped up and down and went in a circle pretty quickly. She was a good big sis and Cade didn't fall out!

The kid ferris wheel...here I was formulating my strategy on how to catch Cade if he decided to stand up.

He didn't like the rides that went in the dark..."All done! Scary!"

This was the most memorable ride of all...the Hullamvasut.  It is a giant wooden roller coaster built in the 1920's and is the oldest operating roller coaster in central Europe. 

There were NO seat belts or lap bars, and the seats had springs underneath for that extra bounce!

This man was the brake guy.  I later read that this roller coaster is called a side friction roller coaster and has nothing to keep the cars from flying off the track, thus the brakeman. Yikes!  

We took Chelsea on the ride and she LOVED it. I held onto her for dear life and prayed. There were some pretty decent sized drops, and without any restraining devices it was a bit scary! There is an overall theme of personal responsibility in Hungary, but this took it to a new level.  Thankfully, we all survived and had a really fun day.

Walk the Wish

On Friday, we had the great opportunity to walk a 5k as a family through the forest behind Chelsea's school. Her school does the walk each year to raise money for a make-a-wish type organization in Hungary called Csodalampa.  In looking at their website, there is a list of the wishes that are waiting to be fulfilled for seriously ill children. Sadly/interestingly/I don't know what.....most of the "wishes" are things American kids have and take for granted. Laptops, slides in the back yard, the means to take driver's ed at 16, portable video game systems...these are their wishes. Food for thought.

Anyway, the 3 of us plus Cade in his pack trekked through the forest with about 600 others. The first half was all uphill - it was a workout for sure! We were so proud of Chelsea - she walked the entire 3 miles without complaining or asking to be carried. It was a fun afternoon and we were happy to take part in supporting Csodalampa.

First Timers!

Parliament

We have enjoyed having Larry's parents here for the last 2 weeks and showing them around our great city and beyond. It was their first trip overseas, and we were so proud of them for being brave enough to come and experience life here. They enjoyed it and it was fun listening to their observations about how different things are here! What, no ice? I don't think they are ready to trade in their American conveniences and move to Europe!

Visiting Szentendre

Picnic at AISB

While they were here, we hit most of the Budapest highlights. We also took a long weekend trip to Austria, making stops in Linz, Salzburg, and Vienna. It was our first time to Linz, and we enjoyed our time there. I thought it was a nice mix of the feel of Vienna and Salzburg. We stumbled upon this cute little parade....

After walking through the main street, we took a train up the mountain in Linz. At the top is a fun little place called the Grottenbahn. It was really cute and my kids loved it. It is a little fairy tale ride and fairy tale village, with scenes from all the well known fairy tales. We had a fun time there, and I would recommend it for anyone with small children.

From Linz, we made a quick trip to Salzburg. The flowers were beautiful, as always!  We enjoyed a leisurely morning in Old Town while Geney and Wilbron did the Sound of Music Tour. 

On the way home, we spent the night in Vienna. It was a bit cold and rainy, so we didn't spend much time there before heading back to Budapest.

We have been blessed to have several visitors since we moved here....it is always fun and we are thankful for everyone who makes the long trip to visit!

13 Years of Wedded Bliss

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary! I am so thankful for 13 years with my man.  We have had some great adventures over the years, though this past year tops them all!  Tonight, we celebrated by eating leftovers and collecting slugs with the kids. (We really like those snails and slugs!)  I even told him he didn't have to get me a card this year, since I don't think I'd be able to read it anyway. 

But, on Saturday night we went on a real date!  We had a reservation and took a taxi - we are so fancy.

We enjoyed walking around St. Stephen's Basilica and eating at nice restaurant around the corner. 

After dinner, we enjoyed a leisurely walk across the chain bridge. It was a nice evening and fun to people watch. We saw some interesting people, enjoyed taking pictures for a few tourists, and we even saw Spiderman on the bridge. Should've gotten his picture. We walked down the river to a bus stop that goes up near our house. From there, we walked to another restaurant for coffee and dessert. 
Our friends, the McLendon's, had recently had this dessert and I wanted to try it.  It was a banana and ice cream under a chocolate shell. The waiter poured hot custard on top and the shell melted away. Yummy!!

Happy Anniversary, babe! I love you and I am blessed to be your wife!

Birthday Boy

Our baby boy turned two last Sunday, the day before we came back to Budapest.  We celebrated with a family party at the Little Gym. We were blessed to share the day with many members of Cade's birth family, as well as my parents and Matt and Kayla. We all had the best time!! 

Chelsea made him a Build a Bear puppy for his birthday. She was so excited to give it to him and they had a sweet little moment together.

It has been fun to see the changes in Cade in just the last week.  His vocabulary has increased exponentially, he copies everything Chelsea does, and today I caught him climbing a set of bookcases. He is so much fun and we love him so much! We are so thankful the Lord blessed us with a precious little boy!